e.

Besides singing and acting on the stage, Nero took part in every
other species of public amusement. He entered as a competitor for
the prize in races and games of every kind. Of course he always came
off victor. This end was accomplished sometimes by the secret
connivance of the other competitors, and sometimes by open bribery
of the judges. Nero's ridiculous vanity and self-conceit seemed to
be fully gratified by receiving the prize, without any regard
whatever to the question of deserving it. He used to come back
sometimes from journeys to foreign cities, where he had been
performing on the stage at great public festivals, and enter Rome in
triumph, with the garlands, and crowns, and other decorations which
he had won, paraded before him in the procession, in the manner in
which distinguished commanders had been accustomed to display the
trophies of their military victories, when returning from foreign
campaigns.

In fact it was only in the perpetration of such miserable follies as
these that Nero appeared before the public at all, and in his
private conduct and character he sank very rapidly, after he came
into power, to the very lowest degree of profligacy and vice. After
having spent the evening in drinking and debauchery, he would sally
forth into the streets at midnight, as has already been stated, to
mingle there with the vilest men and women of the town in brawls and
riots. On these excursions he would attack such peaceable parties as
he chanced to meet in the streets, and if they made resistance, he
and his companions would beat them down and throw them into canals
or open sewers. Sometimes in these combats he was beaten himself,
and on one occasion he came very near losing his life, having been
almost killed by the blows dealt upon him by a certain Roman
senator, whose wife he insulted as she was walking with her husband
in the street. The senator, of course, did not know him. He used to
go to the theater in disguise, in company with a gang of companions
of similar character to himself, and watch for opportunities to
excite or encourage riots or tumults there. Whenever he could
succeed in urging these tumults on to actual violence he would
mingle in the fray, and throw stones and fragments of broken benches
and furniture among the people.

After a while, when he had grown more bold and desperate in his
wickedness, he began to lay aside all disguise, and at last he
actually seemed to take a pride and